Annapurna Circuit - high on life

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The first thing we noticed when we hopped off the bus at Besisahar, the road's terminal point, was a large group of mules being loaded with bags of cement and boxes of everything a village could need up in the mountains. Little did we realise how these mules would become such a regular and mainly welcome sight to us. when we were unsure if we were going the right way, mule dung became the beacon that we were on the right track and if it was fresh then all the better!

Lucy and I had taken the option not to take a guide or porter (which you cannot do now owing to new rules introduced 2 days afte we left) as we were keen to be independent and carry our own gear. Having whittled our bags down to about 12kg each we skipped off from Besishar and decided that the fist day should be easy. So an up and down 2 hours later we stopped at Bhulebhule having passed though green terraced farm land and hugging the path of the Maryangdi river. our watery companion for the next 10 days. Still fresh to our new surroundings, we spent the remaining daylight watching 'traffic' crossing the swingbidge, including children playing poo sticks, mules and porters slogging their improbably large loads upwards to further villages - from the back the look like a huge box with stocky legs sticking out underneath.

Our first guesthouse was a pretty good representation of what were to come to get used to at the end of each day. Prices for bed and food are fixed by the local tourism committee so whether the guesthouse is a mildew crusty old place, a modren concrete monster or lovely cottage garden family place, the price is the same. The menu is also the same in evey guesthouse so have to pray that your host shows pride in heir cooking. This certianly made life easy for us as we always picked the guesthouse with the best view, and later on the trip we came to learn not to go central village as that's where dogs seemed most vocal at night howling at each other, jackals or the moon.

Our first morning on the trek was an early one and this became the no for us getting uip at at least 630 evey morning to grab brekkie and hit the path by about 730. Sunrise is always a pleasure to see especially if you have picked your guesthouse for best views and certianly took out the pain of rising so early! No chance of a lie in as invariably you hear othe trekkers though the usually thin walls of your room anyway!

The first few days, on retrospect were probably the least interesting compared to other days but at the time we were wide-eyed at village life, watching farmers cutting the ripening rice, collecting wood and animal feed for the approaching winter and smiling a firm 'no' to young children saying 'ello skoopen' (Hello school pen) and 'ello rupee' - bless their persistence but they were going to get nothing from us as we saw the kids selling the pens to local shops!

The trekking was quite tough on the first few days, a combination of getting your legs and back into condition plus the track is up and down steep gorges until you reach Chame when the steady slog up towards the high altitudes of Thorong La begins. Our bodies wee OK and we were really settling into the rhythm of our trek - up early, walk for 4-6 hours, stop at numerous teahouses for lemon tea (the milk tea being to variable in manifestation to know what you are going to get!) and arrive at our chosen nightstop village at about 1pm. Tis gave us all afternon to absorb the village atmosphere, read, chatting, snoozing (I got quite into my siestsas - why not!) and keep the feet rested. It's amazing how a whole afternoon can flow by doing this - very relaxing.

We were loving the walk so far and were relieved by the easy pace of the walking and the fact that our packs were not causing us any grief. Most trekkers were in groups, and those who were not mostly had a porter to carry their gear - we were defintely in the minority carying our own packs and only occasionaly envied their relative weightlessness. The scenery after about Chame (4-5 days into the walk) changes from steep gorges to more open landscape with tantalising mountain top views - this was why we had after all to commune with the peaks! The flora changes subtly day to day from rural greens lower down to a drier, thinner forest higher up as we near the tee line. At one point we were surrounded by marijuana plants in autumnal bud of which I pruned a couple for 'scientific' reasons.

to be continued

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Comments

[Guy]

Scientific?
Your blog comes to abrupt end just after your pruning incidence, is this some sort of coincidence? Or did you just want to leave us gasping for more ..... ?